534 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



tation. But our labor-saver would say, then 

 haul it from the meadow direct to the field. 

 But we must consider that ammonia and its 

 various combinations are our best fertilizers. 

 They are volatile, and continually escaping, as 

 our olfactory nerves often remind us. -This 

 loss renders the manure less valuable every 

 hour. But meadow-muck is a great absorbent 

 of these salts of ammonia, and wherever ap- 

 plied, whether in the barn-yard, hog-pen, or 

 on night soil, the offensive smell connected 

 with these places is lost, and the air about 

 them is pure. Consequently, the meadow- 

 muck, by absorbing these salts, becomes en- 

 riched by them as a fertilizer. Then, again, 

 the decomposition of vegetation in our mead- 

 ows liberates an acid which is a preservative 

 of vegetation and resists further decay, so that 

 we find the stumps of trees on uplands entirely 

 moulder away in a few years, while centuries 

 pass away and the peat and muck of the mead- 

 ow remains the same. For this acid the gases 

 and ammnnia of the manure has a strong 

 affinity, with which they combine, forming 

 compounds highly productive of vegetation, 

 leaving the muck free from its preserving 

 influences, and thus prepared for further de- 

 composition. 



Manure is matter in a state of decomposi- 

 tion or decay, and matter in a state of decay 

 has the property of producing decomposition 

 or decay in other matter. These difierent 

 substances, coming in contact with each other, 

 accelerate decay in one another, and as those 

 substances which are the most rotted are the 

 moit available as food for vegetation, the 

 one aids the other in this great preparation. 

 Hence we find that muck does not dilute the 

 manure, but really makes a manure equally as 

 rich in fertilizing qualities as the pure drop- 

 pings from the animals, and in doing this, it 

 takes away all stench ; and the hog-pen, the 

 vault, an<l the barn-yard, which have been 

 such an oflfence to sense refined, are rendered 

 objects which the most delicate would scarcely 

 notice. It will be seen from these deductions 

 that muck is a valuable fertilizer and a reser 

 voir for the fertilizing qualities which most 

 plants need. Whether it is worth hauling to 

 our barn-yards, let the common sense of the 

 farmer determine. T. w. 



Boston, Oct. 3, 1868. 



For the Kew England Farmer. 

 LETTER FHOM MAINE. 



Imitation grass and woods, and hills, however 

 perfect the imitation, can give none of that 

 gentle impulse to the involuntarj' side of our 

 physical and mental life, to the pulses of the 

 olood and the forces of brooding reverie, 

 which we derive from contact with Nature. 

 So when the country is "full of invitations 

 Bweet," I hie away to its recesses. In the 

 peaceful town of Norway I generally find my 

 Acadia, gravitating toward "Uolt's Uill/' 



' nearly in the centre of the town, upon whose 

 i summit is a farm of about three hundred acres, 

 ■ cultivated by an industrious farmer, after whom 

 the hill is named. The town of Norway is 

 ; about eight miles square, almost wholly occu- 

 pied by extensive farms. The village nestles 

 m a valley upon the eastern boundary. 



One thing very observable this year is the 

 vegetation. The order of Affairs seem to be 

 reversed. Heretofore, Maine has been a fort- 

 night behind Massachusetts, but this summer, 

 the further north we penetrate, the more ad- 

 vanced and luxuriant we find the corn, pota- 

 toes and other vegetables. In Paris, I no- 

 ticed one field of corn, covered with quite 

 large ears, which is something of an achieve- 

 ment "way down East." The heat has been 

 intense. In Gorham, forty miles beyond, the 

 themometer one day reached 125°, and at Mt. 

 Washington 92°, a result never before known, 

 even to the "oldest inhabitant." One would 

 think the South had veered round to the North, 

 for we all know that the Southem States have 

 suffered less from the heat than the North. 



How often are we reminded, even when 

 flitting by farms and fields even in the loneliest 

 places seen from the car windows, that "order 

 is Heaven''s first law !" In the waving wheat, 

 the rustling corn, the potatoes, beets, peas, 

 beans, &c., order is closely pursued by rows, 

 hills in rows, beds, hedges, &c. If we could 

 throw aside this rule as unnecessary, what a 

 queer looking world we should have ! What 

 a bother existence would be ! Just imagine ! 



The crop of apples will be very small. The 

 spring promised much in blossoms, but the wet 

 season, followed by the severe July heat, has 

 covered the ground beneath the trees with de- 

 plorable results. 



The scarcity of laborers and the high wages 

 demanded, are throwing the farmers more each 

 year upon the use of labor-saving machines. 

 All labor-saving machines, by the way, are but 

 steps to climb towards heaven with, for they 

 afford mankind more leisure for self- improve- 

 ment, soften the harshness of life, making it 

 seem less like a great working plantation, and 

 make the heart more contented and grateful. 

 Blessed be inventors ! This summer, I hear 

 everywhere the singing of the busy mowing 

 machine. The crop of hay will be immense. 



Hops, the cultivation of which is increasing 

 rapidly, promise generally a heavy harvest. 

 The .^aaine farmer is very shrewd. He cannot 

 drink lager beer himself, and rather denounces 

 its use. But he is perfectly willing to aid the 

 Teuton in obtaining it. Each year, as the 

 German population increases, and the Ameri- 

 can propensity to imitate or imbibe any new 

 doctrine or habit is kept receptive, the de- 

 mand for hops will increase and the produc- 

 tion augment. And it pays profitably here, 

 where small fruits and vegetables find no mar- 

 ket. 



The one great fault and hindrance to success- 

 ful farmbg ia this part of Maine, in my esti- 



